ST. ANNES, England — Tiger Woods is so relaxed and fine-tuned
right now, it's scary. The world's No. 1 player looked impressive during his
second practice round Tuesday at Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Club in preparation
to defend his British Open title. He tees off Thursday at 4:01 a.m. ET.

"He looks very, very good at the moment, better than he probably
ever has," said playing partner Thomas Bjorn, who last played with Woods at the
U.S. Open. "His strike looks a lot better. He looks like he is right back where
he is at his best. He looks very confident, very relaxed.

"When he is like he is right now, he is very difficult
to compete with."

Woods, after finishing outside the top 10 in his last three
tournaments, jetted off to Ireland last week for fly fishing, a couple of rounds
of low-key golf  and buckets and buckets of balls at the driving range.

He got here Monday afternoon and began working intensely
with coach Butch Harmon, who's been videotaping his swing plane.

"My left arm, trying to get that a little bit better, my
wrist angle," Woods explained. "The top, then my rotation of my wrist and hips
on the way through."

So, what was wrong with Woods?

"Actually, it was something very small in my swing, which
unfortunately led to other breakdowns within the swing," Woods said. "It was
very small, very minor. Once I fixed that, everything has seemed to come back.